A casket is formed as a deep, hollow metal shell which is closed by a cap or top. Much effort is expended to provide assurance that the casket is leak-tight so that water cannot leak into the casket when the casket is buried underground. It is also important that body gases or liquids not leak out of the casket when disposed in a mausoleum, etc. Special gaskets have been designed for engagement of the cap with the shell to prevent leakage around the perimeter of the casket. One of the final steps in the manufacturing process of the casket is to pressure test the casket with the lid closed to determine whether the casket, before it is shipped, is indeed leak tight.
The casket hardware presents a potential site for leakage. Conventionally, holes are drilled through the walls of the casket shell. Bolts are passed through these through holes to mount hardware to the shell, the hardware providing the handles by which the casket is carried. Washers are inserted over the bolts interior of the casket, and a nut is threaded onto the bolt for securing the washer thereon. Sealing mastic is disposed about the bolt between the washer and the inner surface of the casket wall. Tightening the nut on the bolt causes the bolt to compress the trim hardware, sometimes known as "ear" hardware or an "escutcheon" plate, thereby creating tension in the bolt, which causes the nut and washer to compress the sealing mastic to the inner surface of the casket wall, thus sealing the hole.
The problem associated with this traditional mounting of hardware to the casket wall and sealing thereof is that when the ear hardware or escutcheon plate, commonly fabricated of zinc, corrodes, dissipates and otherwise falls away from between the casket wall and the bolt head, the means for creating tension in the bolt and hence compression in the sealing mastic between the washer and the casket wall inner surface is eliminated. Thus, without bolt tension to compress the sealing mastic between the washer and the casket wall inner surface, the seal is effectively compromised or lost.